Floated inertial instruments such as certain types of accelerometers and gyroscopes require flotation fluids for operation. Such fluids must have high densities to provide adequate flotation for structural components, and also require relatively high viscosities for good damping properties.
Presently used flotation fluids such as chlorotrifluoroethylene (CTFE), bromotrifluoroethylene (BTFE), and triazines having halogenated side chains derived from CTFE and BTFE suffer from certain disadvantages. CTFE and BTFE cannot be obtained pure, and therefore cause instrument anomalies such as gravity sensitive trends and hot storage sensitivity. Also, high molecular weight CTFE is a wax at room temperature. The triazines are of higher purity than CTFE or BTFE, but because of difficulties in purification they are not single component fluids, but contain isomers such as diastereomers and head-to-head monomer units. They are also expensive, and exhibit maximum densities in the range of only about 2.4 grams per ml.
It would be desirable to have available high density high viscosity fluids which can be readily synthesized at reasonable cost and readily purified.